Tag Archives: Aphrodite

In Wiccan rites, in order to enter the sacred circle with other witches, you are challenged at the gates. HOW DO YOU ENTER? The two keys to gain entry were originally, “In Perfect love and Perfect trust.” In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate this concept as one of the most valuable that Wicca has to offer to Witchdom, as a whole. Sadly, I’m finding that it is widely undervalued.

As a new witchling, when I was struggling to understand what was meant by “perfect” and was taught that it meant “unconditional,” my teacher’s answers just brought up more questions within me. I really didn’t understand, and my early attempts to apply this idea in my life opened me up to more than a few broken hearts.

Several leaders whose rituals I attended suggested to me that if I didn’t feel comfortable pledging to love and trust these strangers at an open festival, I could just answer that I entered, “With an open heart and open mind,” instead. I’ve even repeated the same advice to new folks at my own circles over the years. I now believe that this was bad advice based on a crucial misunderstanding.

As I taught these basic things, and new students asked the same questions, and raised the same red flags time and again, eventually I stopped avoiding the issue and spent time seeking a better answer. When the books and mentor’s answers failed me, I went directly to the source.

For my Great Work exploration of 2014, I devoted myself to discovering what the goddesses of love had to teach me about unconditional love and trust within a panentheist paradigm, such as I have. It was the hardest year of my witching life, thus far, and when I emerged I had an entirely different pair of “rose-colored glasses” with which to view this seminal piece of wisdom.

With the aid of Aphrodite, I developed what I now call the Thealogy of Perfection, and from there, a way to apply that thealogy practically as the Four Rules of Witchcraft for Personal Sovereignty.

Aphrodite’s Thealogy of Perfection

What do we mean by “perfection?”

If the world is a divine tapestry, woven of the love of the Goddess and God, “Love” begins to take on a different definition. If it is EVERYTHING, it is also “Whole” and “Complete” in that there are no parts missing or excluded, and that is healthy thing. Consider the word, “Wholesome.”

Hermetic Alchemy: V. Principle of Rhythm: States: “Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.” — The Kybalion.

Divine Love would have to be both sides of every polarity, every atom, all states of matter, all types of energy, all phases of the cycle, all types of life-forms, all expressions of gender, all sexual preferences, all social strata, all areas of consciousness, crests and troughs, good hair days and bad hair days, red votes and blue votes, sinners and saints, et cetera and so on. Think of a “Perfect” circle; it is all god/dess.

Valentines Day is tomorrow, and I’ve heard the dismissive excuses a few times already: But isn’t that just a “hallmark” holiday? Hallmark makes Christmas cards, too, but I rarely hear folks bitchin’ about that as if a marketable product should put us off of our fun celebrations.

Or how about this one: I don’t “do” Valentine’s day because love should be celebrated everyday. I agree, but then again, death happens every day, too, yet I make a point of honoring death as a concept on Samhain. The Wheel of the Year system gives sacred space for all parts of the cycle in due time, and seeks balance between them, I think that after Imbolc tides shift just past 15 degrees Aquarius and begin to wane onward towards Ostara, it is a GREAT time to celebrate romance and love of all flavors.

In the mythic poetry I enjoy at this time of year, we welcome back the Goddess, renewed again as the young maiden, rising from the slumber of the previous turning like the slender shoots of crocus flower, peeking through the snows. The God is welcomed back as the Lad, a wild young buck, or the tiny buds on the limbs. I envision them both like teenagers, full of innocence and daring, with the plucky stealing of kisses, and the hot flush of their cheeks; they are the thrill of promise.

I feel this connection to Their power whenever I do something romantic, or my sweetheart does something romantic for me. That being said, romance is only one expression of love to enjoy. “Singles Awareness Day” jabs are another way folks rain on my parade. PISH, I say! Oh ye of little imagination! If you waste a good Valentine’s day whining about what you don’t have, rather than celebrating all that is possible, well…that’s not very effective Witchcraft.

Here is what I’ve learned about Divine Love so far: The only heart prepared to receive love is the heart already opened from the giving of love. Making the effort to openly give and receive love of all kinds, will set your vibes a’hummin’. If you want to be a “heart-throb,” you have to start with your own heart, Law of Attraction, and all that. May I suggest that rather than being a Grinch and grumping about this time of year, that you let your heart grow a few sizes and get into the spirit of the season with your friends and family?
To continue reading to my spell to find your ideal paramour, the full post is on my Witch on Fire column at Patheos.com.

I’ve had this blog in my “drafts” for almost 8 months now, kept fiddling with it as the loose ends came together, then I forgot it was there. Alas, this is becoming a chronic condition for me. I recently rediscovered these writings, and for posterity I choose to post them now, even though they are 8 months out of order. Better late than never? ~Heron

Moody Rose By Heron Michelle

I’ve thought long and hard about the Great Work of 2014 on “Unconditional Divine Love.” I continue to wrap my head around all that I learned and I know that work never really ends, just continues to process into something more and more refined.

Here in the restful weeks following Yule, I look back over my previous year seeking the neatly crafted conclusion paragraph at the end of what was a confusing, heart-breaking, yet, ultimately rewarding story of my last year, so that I may look forward and discern what the upcoming dedication should entail.

So, here are a few rays of Yuletide lights to part the darkness…

Aphrodite:After a year in the presence and service of Aphrodite, I will never think about the phrase “rose colored glasses” in the same way again. She gifted me with a way of seeing through all the posturing, vitriol, and vehemency; the lies, anxiety, and desperation; the assholery, and bitchocity; the control-freakery and the escape-goatery; the bullying and victimhood of the world around me, and pierce straight down to see the broken hearts of my fellow man.

We are a wounded people, and those wounds are still bleeding out all over the place. It’s a mess! She taught me that the more egregious the offenses a person is committing, the deeper the anguish that feeds it; the louder the hate-speech, the more clearly I now hear the cry for love. When I see destruction, I can now see clearly past all that to the suffering animal, merely lashing out to protect that part of itself that is weakened from a lack of love, and the fearfulness that engenders.

I became aware that this apocalypse we are living in is the field of destruction made by the dominant paradigm in this society, the battlefield paradigm of good vs. evil, brought to us by the dominant, patriarchal, Abrahamic religions. Anyone who has ever survived a war zone will tell you that no matter which side “wins” the war, everyone loses something profound and is left adrift in the rubble.

The Mabon Day RevelationsThe Mabon Day Revelations of the third and fourth “rules of Witchcraft”, and the tarot confirmations, continue to percolate through my thinking, finding application in all aspects of my everyday life, magickal life, relationships, governance, parenting, etc., I am struck by their integration.

1. Don’t burn the Witch
2. Don’t be the Asshole
3. Don’t be the Weak link
4. Must be Present to Win

These all flow from one into the other, and none can be plucked out separately, or the whole system falls apart. Not burning the witch is no help, if you refuse to be fully present to actually resolve conflicts. How can one possibly have the discretion over whether or not they are being the asshole, if they have no awareness of the fabric of existence within which we are all interlinked?

What good does it do to give lip service to “harm none” without an deep and abiding oath for “perfect love and perfect trust.” Hell, as far as I can tell, most folks out there in the Witching world don’t even know what that phrase is supposed to mean. Why? Because too many have had to rely solely on book training, and too often the only books they had access to were incomplete and written by those who did not yet understand.

Or, they were also forced to rely on those witches who can only regurgitate what their High Priestess once had regurgitated to her, and so on and so forth. I guess what I’m saying is that we will be stronger as a people if we consciously decide to BE PRESENT TO WIN, and continually check in our ideas and praxis with the Divine, DIRECTLY, and be willing to release what may have been traditional, for what promises to serve our evolution individually, and as a species.

All these “rules” require a great sense of purpose, a higher sense of self. All these require a sharp mind, a whole and opened heart, and an alignment of personal will with Highest Divine Will, which are extremely difficult to achieve, and may take years to even begin to understand. It also will, at some point, require vigorous good health to survive the strains of high-level energetic and magickal work. I know I have much work to do on my health and physical condition.

Have you looked around the average pagan gathering recently? If ever the humans there were again subjected to the evolutionary test of “survival of the fittest” you know as well as I do that most of our wheezing, broken, imbalanced, addicted, poisoned, morbidly obese numbers would be the first to fall, and a damned succulent feast we’d make for whatever force sought to devour us.

How can we hope to either serve the gods, or build a better world, if we don’t have the physical stamina to stand in sacred space, nor kneel at the altar? If reading that makes your cheeks flush with anger, indignation or embarrassment, then consider this mirror I’m holding up to be my loving gift to you. Maybe I’m the asshole for expecting great things of a great people, or maybe there are assholes among our number polluting themselves and then blaming every other thing for their problems.

“If that which you seek you find not within, you will never find it without.” ~ The Charge of the Goddess, Doreen Valiente

There is a reason that the yogis and masters of the oldest mystery schools put such emphasis on the connection between body, mind, and spirit. That is why there are martial arts and yoga, tai chi, qi gong, special “ritually pure” religious diets, fasting and purification protocols. Living purely and consuming only what is in alignment with your core values can make a huge difference in your ability to spiritually level up; you are what you eat.

Have you ever read up on Pythagoras? He followed a very well defined and pure diet that he believed strengthened the vessel to channel the gods. Into what quality of vessel do you invite your gods? Think about it. If you offer the finest quality offerings on your altar, but you feed your own incarnate divine body poisons and junk, you are burning the witch; you are the asshole; you are the weak link; you are not present to win, you lose.

The Initiatory Process:
We call the path of the Witch an initiatory process. There are transformations that must catalyze and refine all of our bodies: flesh, will, emotional, mental, spiritual. All of life is this process, all of spiritual evolution across *many* lives is this process, too. Every step upon the path of the Witch is both a death and a rebirth into our most Divine self. That is why I keep calling it the “Thorny path of the Witch” because this process can hurt like hell.

Being a Witch does not happen with a simple profession of faith, nor with “foolish wand-waving**,” nor even with a ritual wherein another human declares it to be so. Beneficial Witchcraft cannot exist in the darkness of ignorance, nor in the bindings of fear. The minute a Witch starts to think of themselves as an island, as “greater than,” or as “power over,” in terms of their pedigree and accolades, they become the weak link, and they lose.

Humility and Leadership Burn Out
If I’ve learned anything at all about Witching over the last 23 years it is this: there is a direct relationship between awareness and humility. The deeper in awareness you advance, the more humbly you accept the vastness of what you do not yet know. Those true servants of the Divine that I’ve met over the years may never disclose to you their most excellent pedigree. The truly wise person may never mention their well-earned 23rd degree, grand-pubah, all-high-muckitymuck status in well-regarded mystery schools, time spent at the knee of greatness, nor the 42 Great Things they accomplished before breakfast this morning.

Usually, they just smile, shake your hand and introduce themselves with their first name. But when you take that hand, you feel it….that sense of warmness, calm, centered, balanced, compassionate, self-awareness. They are powerful, but they transmute that power into loving creation, strong and sovereign. Approve or disapprove as you will, they are beyond caring about such things. They probably garden somewhere on the lunatic fringe, retired from the bullshit of the whiny, cantankerous freak-show that has become of certain segments of the neo-pagan movement.

This is our profound loss, my people. It is our loss that those of greatest attainment and at-one-ment, are so heartsore from the constant insane demanding, squabbling, complaining and general assholery within pagandom that they’ve retreated from community leadership altogether, with a “good riddance” and a backward-thrown middle finger. Into that breech, I’d like to bring the lessons of Divine Love and the Four Rules, and hopefully create a little change to bring peace enough to retain the best leaders before they burn out.

In short, I asked to understand and practically apply the lessons of unconditional Divine Love–of perfect love and trust–to human relationships and I was first stripped bare, heart broken, and then shown through excruciating experience all the ways that I feel the FEAR OF THE LACK OF THE LOVE. It was a tour of how humans are horrible are to each other. Yet, once I recognized and acknowledged each lesson, the painful blows of that ass-kicking would stop. Now I know how to avoid being the Asshole!

Acceptance: when my inner truth can be expressed outwardly without risk of rejection.

Sovereignty: My absolute authority over myself are respected and I have FREE WILL as a being of dignity and worth within society.

Resources: Access to sufficient resources to sustain my life in good health.

Affection: Touch and nurturing; the healthy sensual intimacy I prefer.

Expression: Expressing my needs and opinions as a sovereign being, with the respect of being heard, my contributions are valued.

Security: My physical safety is not threatened and boundaries not trespassed; my spiritual, emotional and mental privacy are respected.

Authenticity: I can trust that the outward appearance and declaration of my environment and any situation I encounter are the actual truth, without deception or trickery. I’m not being fooled or exploited. I am not the butt of the joke.

Trustworthy: I can trust that the people and environment I’m in are worthy of my trust, care, and mutual respect.

Now that I know the love conditions so intimately well, I can spot them clearly when they are missing from any situation presented to me…. my new pair of “Rose Colored Glasses” helps me see 20/20 what wound from a fear of a lack of love is the source of these witch burnings and assholery, what weakens the links, and makes us absent for the win in our community. Its like a damned super-power now! HAIL APHRODITE!

The Gift:Then, I was gifted an opportunity to be in relationship with a great man, a great partner, who had been on a parallel journey to my own, who knew too well the pain of a broken heart and was still hopefully seeking the answers to these very questions. Together, through gently helping each other correct our old fearful and wounded relationship habits, we’ve so far been able to build the healthiest love I have ever known. This love inspires me to be the best person I can be, not for him, per se, but for myself, so that I will have the longest time possible to be fully alive, strong and present in this life, to enjoy his company. This love makes me a better witch. Hail Aphrodite and THANK YOU!

A key lesson I learned this year: The only heart prepared to receive love is the heart already opened from the sharing of love.

“All began in love, all seeks to return in love. Love is the law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mysteries.” ~Starhawk

I conclude the Great Work of 2014 a healthier, more compassionate person than when I began, and I am grateful for the very practical framework for applying these lessons for a better life. I understand this to be the work I am meant to carry forward into the coming Great Work of 2015, so that I may widely share the lessons. I will soon welcome Hermes onto the altar and seek his aid in communication, travel and mediumship.

Into the breech once more!
With gratitude,
~Heron

**”foolish wand waving?” If you don’t get Harry Potter references, there isn’t much I can do to help you. Probably best if you just stop reading here, and go get you a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling. Then all will become clear.